
Oatmeal Week: Overnight Oatmeal Inspired by My Interview with Jennifer Aniston & Her Favorite Oat Dish
When Jennifer Aniston picked up the phone with a cheery, “Hello, is this Laura?” I didn’t recognize her voice. I know, crazy. How do I not recognize Rachel Green? But I didn’t which is completely unbelievable since she’s my celebrity BFF. Do you have one of those? You know a celeb you’ve skimmed enough personal information about from various interviews to know you love all the same stuff and, therefore, decide you should be friends. Like Jennifer and me. Margarita fan? Check. Beach lover? Check. Has a fear of flying? Check. We’re practically twins, right?
Photo by Maya Visnyei
As the former beauty director of FASHION magazine and long-time beauty writer, celebrity interviews are something I am used to doing. Ever since a trailblazing Elizabeth Taylor bottled a fragrance juice and called it White Diamonds and celeb endorsements of any kind cemented a product’s success, beauty journalists have found themselves in front of an eye-popping range of celebrities, and I was one of those writers. In recent years, I’d happily put those days behind me to feed my passion for cooking and documenting family-food madness here on SPC. Then, one afternoon, I received an email with the subject line “Jennifer Aniston Interview.” My friend and former colleague Lesa, who now fills my old post, wrote me about an opportunity Aveeno was offering the magazine to interview the actress. As the brand ambassador for the nature-based cosmetic giant, Aniston narrated a lovely series of four digital shorts called The Beauty of Nature. “There is no one better qualified than you,” Lesa wrote. And she should know.
For years, as my former teammate in beauty, Lesa listened to me bang-on about my love of Aniston’s quirky Rachel Green character. She’d smile and nod as I’d promote Aniston’s simple, classic style in our fashion meetings and laughed when I clipped the tabloid headline “Not Speaking to Brad” and stuck it to my computer in a moment of solidarity during that messy split. I surprised Lesa with my restraint when I’d regularly work with makeup artist Robin Siegel and not mention my crush on the artist’s longtime pal. However, I shocked Lesa when, after spending an evening with Cover Girl spokesperson Molly Simms, I told her how I’d insisted on being invited along the next time the Las Vegas actress and her buddy Aniston go out for a girl’s night. To be honest, all my get-the-restraining-order behaviour aside, I originally liked the actress for all the same reasons everyone else did but then started to love how she always seemed so damn brave. As someone who can err on the side of playing it safe, I like that Aniston appears to be very resilient and unafraid of what comes her away.
Photo courtesy of Aveeno
So, as you can figure, I pulled myself from my self-induced beauty writing retirement to finally, finally accept an opportunity to interview my celebrity friend. If you want to see the story featured on fashion magazine.com you can find it here. You should also check out the digital shorts which follow the journey of Aveeno ingredients and how they travel from farm to product. The first short, also found in the above link, is titled “Oat for your Skin.” With oats being one of the topics of our interview, the food-girl in me couldn’t resist asking her about her favourite way to eat the grain. “I had it this morning,” Aniston said. “I had oatmeal with almond milk, cinnamon, Stevia and a sliced Banana. It’s so healthy, low-calorie, high-fiber–it fills you up, lasts a good couple of hours.”
I hate to say it but, see, we’re so friends. I eat oatmeal every morning too and my recipe is very similar. However, this time of year, I need to lighten it up a bit–a piping hot bowl isn’t as appealing now that Spring has finally arrived. Inspired by my interview, I created this overnight oatmeal (it’s basically a Bircher Muesli) incorporating a lot of ingredients from Aniston’s morning meal. It’s so quick to mix-up at night, and Scarlett and I enjoy making our own batches since you can toss in whatever you’re craving. We each put our mixes in mason jars and pop them in the refrigerator before bed. In the morning, we just grab spoons and eat them out of the jar.
Ingredients
- Makes: 2 servings
- Prep time: 5 minutes
- Total time: 5 minutes
- ½ cup (125 ml) plain Greek style yogurt
- 1 cup (250 ml) old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) coconut milk
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) almond milk
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 Tbsp (15 ml) chia seeds
- 1 tsp (5 ml) honey or maple syrup
- 1 tsp (5ml) cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp (2 ml) real vanilla extract
- a pinch fresh grated nutmeg
- pinch of salt
Method
In a medium-size mixing bowl, place all the ingredients and stir until blended.
Pour into two mason or jam jars, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.
You might also like
Lemon Linguini
Esme’s at an interesting stage where she as engaged in make believe (“Mum, pretend you’re an Eater Witch who wants to steal the mermaid’s money but you don’t know it’s
Yogurt Bark
We first started making yogurt bark when we were in the recipe testing stage of our second book The School Year Survival Cookbook. It was going to be in our
Egg Bakes
I’m not making these on Christmas morning. I’m going to make a strata (like the one we posted last year) because I need a breakfast that involves zero prep. But
1 Comment
Happy 2015: 5 easy recipes to start of the new year | Sweet Potato Chronicles
July 20, 11:42[…] Overnight Oatmeal – Oats, Greek yogurt, chia seeds, fruit and it makes itself. If you ask me, that’s how […]